Saturday, May 14, 2016

It was that time of the month again.....Frostgrave
Campaign Day!!! We met at Chris' house for the fourth installment of our campaign. Having recently picked
up Dark Alchemy, we decided to use the new potions and potion tables. The scenario today would combine the Worm Hunt and Living Statues together.

The table set-up

With 5 of our 7 players present, we all
placed our statues and treasures.While
the one on one games are okay, we enjoy larger multi-player games and modify
the scenarios accordingly.We then drew randomly for selecting our starting
locations.I was able to choose first
and selected a center position.I would
be flanked by Greg (The Doctor) and Chris (Kodiak) with Jim (Vaaron) and David
(Lingzhu) across the table.David remembered
to bring coffee and donuts but forgot all his miniatures (at least he
remembered the donuts).Chris loaned him
enough figures to play.

After all the warbands were set-up in their starting
locations, we drew numbered chits to see who would activate first.....﻿

Lingzhu at the start

Vaaron at the start

Kodak at the start

The Doctor at the start

Knabe took a deep breath of the frosty morning air.The day was clear, and one could feel the
magical energies emanating from the ruins.He patted his young apprentice Vogel on the shoulder and smiled at his
youthful eagerness.Ah to be young again……but
this is not a time to be distracted.Knabe
could hear others moving about off in the distance.Bobo growled loudly as he too sensed the presence
of the other warbands – eager to get into action.

Knabe ready to enter the ruins

He handed Potions
of Teleportation to Agger (Treasure Hunter) and Faenger (Treasure Hunter), and a Potion of Healing to Vogel
(The boy usually hurts himself).Having
successfully cast Raise Zombie,
Knabe was prepared to lead his 13 man (and animal) strong warband into
the ruins.

The warband warily moves forward, looking for treasure
but ever scanning for members of the opposing warbands.A sharp crack of a spell being cast sounds
out somewhere off to Knabe’s left front.Ignoring it for a moment, he weaves the spell Telekinesis to move a pile of treasure closer – only to have it not
cast.He looks up and sees a glowing
sigil in the cloudy sky.Someone had
successfully cast Draining Word –
Telekinesis.Well that will require
a slight change of tactics.

As Faenger (Treasure Hunter), Gauner (Thief), and Fritz (Marksman) move forward, Vogel
attempts to cast Bone Dart towards
Kodiak’s warband.He fails and suffers a
minor burn for his troubles.A short
while after that, he watches in awe as a giant worm explodes out of the frozen
ground right under the feet of several of Kodiak’s henchmen.

Glad that thing popped up in Kodak's area

Bobo, Fleck, and the fox move out to the left to what
trouble they can cause.One of the
Doctor’s crossbowman hits the fox – he doesn’t get back up.

Knabe once again decides to try and cast Telekinesis as one of Lingzhu’s henchmen
gets close to a treasure.Even with the effects
of the Draining Word – Telekinesis,
he successfully moves the treasure out of the reach of Lingzhu’s warband – at least
for now.

Meanwhile, still amazed by the appearance of the worm,
Vogel’s distraction causes him to fail to cast Bone Dart again…and he wounds himself, again!But he does get to see the worm make a quick
meal out of Kodiak’s thief before the rest of his warband kills it.

Legio (Ranger) notices Lingzhu is glowing brightly,
making him an easy target.With a
perfectly placed shot that cannot be dodged, Lingzhu falls to the ground.Faenger (Treasure Hunter) drinks his Potion of Teleportation and propels
himself inside the top of the hut tower – only to have a statue come to life inside
the room shortly thereafter.After a few
blows are traded, Faenger manages to severely wound the creature but is nevertheless defeated.Just before losing consciousness, he sees Lingzhu’s thief run in and
finish off the badly damaged statue; and collect the treasure.

Both Diebin (Thief) and the zombie manage to pick up
treasure items. They head back towards the safety of the Inn.

Knabe and Vogel both fail to cast Bone Dart at one of the living statues (1 of 6 spells successfully
cast so far).Crossbows miss their targets
but Legio (Ranger) manages to kill one of Lingzhu’s thugs as he tried to make a
play for a treasure item.

Then disaster strikes.Bobo is felled by The Doctor’s treasure hunter.Fleck is killed from behind by an animated
statue.Another giant worm emerges from
beneath the ruins and attacks Bogen (Crossbowman), severely wounding him.

Knabe successfully cast Bone Dart at a statue but the dart fails to do any damage.Rubbing his Fate Stone doesn’t help at all.Vogel also fails to cast Bone
Dart and injures himself once again.

The worm is charged by Agger in an attempt to save Bogen.It will ultimately cost him his life as the
worm makes a quick meal of his corpse.Still hungry, the worm turns its attention back to Bogen and he too goes
down for the count.

All across the ruins, the smells of magic being cast and the
sounds of multiple battles being fought ring through the cold air as the other
warbands engage the statues, and each other.But Knabe doesn’t have time to stop and dwell on any of that, the worm
needs to die.He and Vogel cast Bone
Dart again but fail to cause any damage.

Fritz had been firing bolts at the Doctor’s warband all
morning, with no real success.As he
cranks the crossbow once again, he notices the Doctor looking his way.Suddenly, his crossbow crumbles in his
hand.He decides it’s time to leave and
beats a hasty retreat towards safety.

Vogel takes out a giant worm

And then things began to look up….Vogel manages to
successfully cast Bone Dart on the
worm and kills it.Legio fire and arrow
at Lingzhu’s apprentices and strikes him down – two magic users killed in one
day – this could become habit-forming.

Knabe then takes out Kodiak’s archer with a Bone Dart as he heads toward the last
unclaimed treasure.This allows Legio
the opportunity to pick it up seconds before being attacked by a statue.Legio manages to survive but is locked in
combat.Knabe tries to cast Leap on Legio to get him out of danger
but fails.Vogel then tries and a small
miracle occurs, he is successful and Legio leaps to safety with the treasure
tightly clutched in his arms.

Knabe, Vogel, and Legio quickly make their way back to
the Inn to join the rest of the survivors.When he can catch his breath, Knabe takes stock of the butcher’s bill –
7 out of 13 warband members succumbed to their injuries. Agger (Treasure Hunter) was consumed by the worm; and Fleck (Snow Leopard) doesn’t
make it back home. While Agger's assistance will be sorely missed and hard to replace, another snow leopard can be easily summoned. Bogen (Crossbowman) and
Gauner (Thief) are badly wounded.They
will be paid and sent back home to recover.Maybe they will be able to rejoin the warband in the future but for now,
they will be replaced with new recruits.Faenger, Bobo, and the Fox manage to make it back safety.After some food and sleep, they will be ready
for the next trip into the ruins.

Knab'e's Warband suffers s few casualties

On the positive side, Vogel has gained some notoriety for
slaying a giant worm.Knabe will be able
to advance three levels.The warband
managed to recover three treasures with 190 gold coins, Potions of Poison and Healing, and grimoires with Elemental Bolt and Reveal Secret.The magic
casting wasn’t very good; with only 8 of 16 successfully cast spells. My spell distribution wasn't good either: Bone Dart was attempted 12 times, Telekinesis 2 attempts, and Leap two attempts. I usually cast more Telekinesis spells, either to gain treasure or deny it to other warbands, but the Draining Word make it too difficult to mess with; that plus all the statues and the two worms made Bone Dart more of a necessity.

Kodak's home base?

Another great game graciously hosted by Chris; already
looking forward to next month’s outing. Not as many pictures as usual, the action was too intense. Will try to do better next month.

For your reading enjoyment, and some additional pictures, here are a couple other game reports covering today's action: